


until this is over (or, what happened before)

by Spoofymcgee



Series: sunrise, sunset [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Day Off, Fix-It, Gen, Holovid (Star Wars), Light Angst, Lightsabers, Revenge, Sparring, Teaching, Throwing People Across Rooms, anakin does trip over his own feet when he sees it, and yes, because it's still during the war, but we already know how it turns out, everybody is happy, everybody needs a hug because it's star wars, palpafricc dies, so i don't think it counts?, that's rex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26613469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoofymcgee/pseuds/Spoofymcgee
Summary: Back to the matter at hand; how painful is flaying? Probably very. And Master Che isn't likely to give her any kind of pain medication, oh no, she'll just suffer until-He's laughing, she realizes. Master Mundi's laughing."Help an old master up, child," he says, holding out a hand. She grabs it and tugs him standing, still very much stupefied. "Now, who taught you that trick? It wasn't Skywalker, was it? No, no, not his style. He prefers brute force to underhanded deceptions like that."Taking stock of her bewildered expression, he grins."Tell me, child," he demands. "Some smuggler you happened to meet on one of the soggy balls of destitution they're calling the front nowadays?"
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Ki-Adi Mundi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: sunrise, sunset [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927888
Comments: 4
Kudos: 175





	until this is over (or, what happened before)

Ahsoka's day starts at o'three, when she wakes up with desperate tears filling her eyes, cries of useless warning falling from her lips.

Anakin's up too. She doesn't have to ask why. Two tracks of dried salt have carved their way into his face, and his hands shake when he tucks a blanket over her shoulders. 

He makes the tea this time.  


Anakin's tea is always the same; he never remembers to mix in the sugar, so it's always just slightly bitter all the way through, and almost too sweet at the very end.   


They don't talk.  


They don't talk, but he knows just the right way to slip an arm around her shoulders and gently stroke the side of her montral with his thumb, the way that says 'it'll be okay'.  


They don't talk, but she knows just the right way to nudge her head against his shoulder gently and curl into his side, the way that says 'it wasn't your fault'.  They don't talk, and maybe they should, but for now, this is enough.

Obi-Wan wakes up later than he claims he should, and doesn't feel like making breakfast, so they go down to the refectory. 

Everything is bustling with life down there, and the warmth of the Force wipes away memories of the vast coldness of space and grieving words, of lonely battlefields and desolate landscapes. 

She takes a few pastries and a sandwich, adds a bowl of vitamin rich cereal and a shake when Obi-Wan gently hip-checks her and gives her an expectant look.

It's a gentle reminder that they're back at the temple, not rationing scraps on some desolate planet because the Seps blew up their supplies.

Half a dozen other masters stop by while they're eating; two of them chide Obi-Wan for ending up in the Halls of Healing last week because he'd passed out from low blood pressure.

Anakin murmurs something that makes Obi-Wan smack him on the back of the head, and he laughs. Ahsoka smiles at them from across the table. 

Obi-Wan turns on her, and starts going off about something-probably the stunt she'd pulled in an attempt to impress Barriss the last time they'd been stationed with the 41st. 

_ (Well she had to do  _ something _ , didn't she? It's not like she can go hunt up some nice wildlife for the girl she wants to impress. No, Ahsoka had to fall in love with an  _ herbivore. _ ) _

"Not all of us can angstily repress our feelings as well as you do, Master." she says, and winks at Anakin, grabbing her tray and getting up. She's halfway across the room before Obi-Wan's finished sputtering and heading out the door before Anakin manages to stop laughing enough to get off the floor.

She's comfortably certain she'll pay for that later. 

It's alright, because she can set Master Yaddle on him if he tries anything; Obi-Wan is not nearly as good at hiding evidence as he seems to think. Honestly, the bottle of purple dye had just been sitting there in the locked safe secreted away in the mouse droid maintenance shaft. It was almost like he'd wanted her to find it.

There's a loud thud as Master Mundi hits the mat, and Ahsoka's life flashes before her eyes.

She's going to die.

She knows that.

The question now is whether he'll grant her a merciful, quick death, or leave her to be flayed alive my Master Healer Che for kicking one of her patients in a still-healing inury.

She hadn't been expecting a surprise exam when she'd walked into the salles looking for a spar. 

Master Mundi had walked up to where she was stretching with Anakin and informed her that he was going to be taking stock of her skills 'for the Council, so they can see how effective battlefield training is'. 

Yeah, right. 

And if she failed? What did they plan to do, make her take remedial courses?

In what time? When she's back at the temple, on leave?

Yeah, no. She has a note from her therapist explicitly stating that any time back on Coruscant is supposed to be spent healing, relaxing or in a bi-weekly session with the Mrlissi woman herself. 

Back to the matter at hand; how painful is flaying? Probably very. And Master Che isn't likely to give her any kind of pain medication, oh no, she'll just suffer until-

He's laughing, she realizes. Master Mundi's laughing.

"Help an old master up, child," he says, holding out a hand. She grabs it and tugs him standing, still very much stupefied. "Now, who taught you that trick? It wasn't Skywalker, was it? No, no, not his style. He prefers brute force to underhanded deceptions like that."

Taking stock of her bewildered expression, he grins.

"Tell me, child," he demands. "Some smuggler you happened to meet on one of the soggy balls of destitution they're calling the front nowadays?"

"C-captain Rex, sir." she answers, and that sends him off again.

He has a nice laugh, she notes absently. Almost exactly like Master Plo's, just a bit less rumbly. 

The sound of it makes her feel safe. She remembers he has several children, back on Cerea, and wonders if it's intended that way.

"The captain, now? Ah, I should have guessed. Will you teach it to me?" 

This snaps her out of the haze.

"I'm not in trouble?" she asks incredulously. He raises an eyebrow.

"Not unless you want to be."

"But-but I kicked you in the knee! What about honor and form and everything else we learn about combat?!"

"None of that helps you face off alone against a Sith assassin and live to tell the tale," Master Mundi answers. "Fight dirty and you see another dawn, that's what I say. And Cin Drallig can disagree with that when he's taken down eight droidekas in five minutes on no sleep and not even enough caf to kill a loth-rat," Ahsoka giggles, and Ki-Adi looks pleased. She moves back into position.

"So you have to feint towards the right, unless you're fighting a magnaguard-their left optical sensors are weaker-and a slashing motion is generally better than a stab, because it'll draw more attention…"

It's almost three hours before Master Mundi decides he's got the trick down well enough, and that's mostly due to the quickly increasing amount of fretting from knight Master Windu had sent to fetch him to the council meeting.

Ahsoka gets in her spar with a nearby group of initiates, and then drops down onto a bench next to Obi-Wan. 

She finishes drinking just in time to watch a shirtless Rex, clad in the bottom half of his whites, glistening faintly with a thin sheen of sweat and having arrived an hour previously, throw another trooper a good sixty feet  _ across the salle _ . 

Anakin, doing katas in a corner, promptly trips over his own feet, flails, and falls face first into the mats.

" _ Kaysh mirsh solus _ ." she mutters, shaking her head. 

Obi-Wan, halfway through downing his own canteen, chokes and sprays water out his nose, before dissolving into a helpless-if painful-fit of giggle-snorts.

"It is," he agrees once he's finally composed himself again. "In fact, I'm not fully convinced of its existence."

"Oh, it's real," she says conversationally. "He passes it around to Domino sometimes when he wants to give it a vacation," she pauses for effect. "He's not the only one, though."

"Oh?" Obi-Wan's interest requires drawing out, like an injured animal hiding someplace low and dark. 

"Mmm," she says, and leans back against the wall, critically eyeing Anakin as he crashes into a rack of weights, stumbles between them and slams into the floor yet again, managing to catch himself on his shoulder. He doesn't take his eyes off Rex, who's switched from brothers to inanimate objects as his targets for pummeling. 

"Fine, I'll bite," Obi-Wan grumbles, and Ahsoka pumps a fist into the air, tasting sweet, sweet victory. 

"Cody owes me ten credits," she cheers, and ignores his disapproving glare in favor of pulling her vambrace out of the mess of discarded tunics and hunting up the holovids from the database.

A tiny blue scene projects above it.

The battle's raging, copious amounts of blaster bolts streaking through the air. There's no sound as the feed focuses on Padmé and Anakin, fighting back to back in the thick of it. As they watch, a single blast goes flying with pinpoint accuracy straight at her face. In a motion to fluid  _ not _ to be practiced, she exchanges his lightsaber for her own, less-civilised, weapon, and re-ignites it, effortlessly deflecting the barrage from all sides.  _ Then _ she starts cutting through the enemy like so much wet flimsi, wearing a grin far surpassing Anakin's in fierceness. The scene pans to the back of a bucket staring at the two that is most definitely Rex's, and comms slide in. There's a low background buzz of shouts and warnings, but a loud, piercing sound, much resembling the whistle of a tea kettle. 

The feed cuts to the captain's in-bucket cameras. He's blushing hard enough that it's truly a surprise his head hasn't burst into flame yet. 

There's a slapping noise, extraordinarily like the sound of Kix's hand hitting the back of Jesse's head, and the holovid folds back into Ahsoka's vambrace. 

He's on the floor this time, powerless to stop his steamed tuber-like descent to the floor in the face of sheer hilarity.

She stops by the creche for a little bit after dinner, like she does whenever they're back home.

She lets the children's happy laughter and hopeful faces teach her anew what she fights for.

They make short work of it and soon have her snorting at their antics and shrieking mirthfully with the rest at two of the younglings' offended faces when she won't let them steal her silka beads.

The day ends slow and happy, curled up on the floor of the Five-oh-First barracks with her brothers. 

She slips off to Hevy's soft snores, and knows she won't dream tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> okay, but hear me out; i couldn't help it. 
> 
> yeah, i did plan to post the original floofy that started me on this, and yes i have another physical wip that's probably going to be finished first, and another twelve or so inside my head i could accidentally write first, but, ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> anyway, hope you all have a wonderful day, go drink some water.


End file.
